Michael Thomas Burns (born September 14, 1970) is an American former

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player. During his playing career, he played for Danish club

Viborg FF Viborg Fodsports Forening ("Viborg Footsport Association"), or Viborg F.F. and VFF for short, is a Danish professional football club based in Viborg. The club was founded in 1896 and waited more than a century before winning its only national ...

, three MLS teams, as well as the United States national team. Burns was most recently the general manager for the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compet ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

Career

Youth

Burns was born and raised in

Marlborough, Massachusetts Marlborough is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 41,793 at the 2020 census. Marlborough became a prosperous industrial town in the 19th century and made the transition to high technology industry in the ...

. At age six, he began playing soccer in local recreation leagues, but never joined a club team. When he reached high school, he played for

Marlborough High School Marlborough High School is a secondary school in Zimbabwe which is located in a Harare suburb called Marlborough. Marlborough is to the north of Harare City Centre and lies between the roads leading to Chinhoyi and Bindura from Harare. Marlboroug ...

boys' team and was named the 1987 Massachusetts High School Player of the Year. After completing high school, he attended

Hartwick College Hartwick College is a private liberal arts college in Oneonta, New York. The institution's origin is rooted in the founding of Hartwick Seminary in 1797 through the will of John Christopher Hartwick. In 1927, the Seminary moved to expand into a ...

from 1988 to 1991. When he graduated from Hartwick, there were few opportunities for playing soccer professionally in the United States, but Burns continued to play with the

U.S. Olympic team United States of America (USA) has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern era Olympic Games, except for the 1980 Summer Olympics, during which it led a boycott to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. American athletes have w ...

as it prepared for the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

. He previously played in the 1987 U16 FIFA World Cup and in the 1989 U-20 FIFA World Cup. The 1989 squad took fourth place in the tournament.

Professional

In 1995, the MLS began an expansion plan to add new teams to the league. In the 1996 MLS Inaugural Allocations, the MLS assigned Burns to the

. In August 1995, the MLS loaned out Burns to

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

club

. The Revolution retained his rights and Burns returned to play for the Revolution in 1996. In 1998, Burns earned a place in the

MLS All-Star game The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from Liga MX. MLS initially adopted a traditional all-star ga ...

. In the 1999 off-season, he made several attempts to move back to a European club, trying out with clubs such as

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

and Hearts. None of the clubs expressed interest in him and Burns returned to the Revolution. In June 2000, the Revolution traded Burns,

Dan Calichman Daniel Jacob Calichman (born February 21, 1968) is an American soccer coach and retired player. He played as a defender and is an assistant coach for Major League Soccer club LA Galaxy. Playing career College Calichman played college soccer a ...

and a first round draft pick to the

San Jose Earthquakes The San Jose Earthquakes are an American professional soccer team based in San Jose, California. The Earthquakes compete as a member club of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). Originally as the San Jose Clash, the franchise ...

in exchange for

Mauricio Wright Wílber Mauricio Wright Reynolds (born 20 December 1970 in San José, Costa Rica) is a Costa Rican former professional footballer who played as a defender. He was a key member of the Costa Rica national team for over ten years. Club career Wri ...

. Burns finished the 2000 season with the Earthquakes. However, he did not remain with the team and he was traded in March 2001 to the

Kansas City Wizards Sporting Kansas City, often shortened to Sporting KC, is an American men's professional soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The administrative offices are located in Downtown Kansas City, Missouri, and the team clubhouse and ...

in return for conditional picks in the 2002 MLS SuperDraft. Burns played two seasons with the Wizards, 2001 and 2002. In 2002, he was chosen to play in the

2002 MLS All-Star Game The 2002 Major League Soccer All-Star Game was the 7th Major League Soccer All-Star Game, played on August 3, 2002 at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. Major League Soccer, looking to capitalize on the success of the United States at the 2002 FIFA ...

. At the end of the 2002 season, Burns announced his retirement from professional soccer.

Post-Professional

On April 10, 2005, Burns was named as the New England Revolution's Director of Soccer. He held this position until 2008, when he was promoted to Vice President of Player Personnel. On November 9, 2011, he was promoted to the

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

position. Burns was dismissed by New England on May 13, 2019.

National team

Burns competed in a major tournament on every level: in the U-17 World Championship in 1987, the World Youth Championship in 1989, the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, and the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

, where he was a non-playing squad member in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

and then played in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

References

External links

*
Danish Superliga statistics
at danskfodbold.com
Danish Superliga statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burns, Mike 1970 births Living people American soccer players People from Marlborough, Massachusetts Sportspeople from Middlesex County, Massachusetts Parade High School All-Americans (boys' soccer) Hartwick Hawks men's soccer players American expatriate soccer players Soccer players from Massachusetts Viborg FF players New England Revolution players San Jose Earthquakes players Sporting Kansas City players United States men's international soccer players Olympic soccer players of the United States Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1995 Copa América players 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players Major League Soccer players Major League Soccer All-Stars United States men's youth international soccer players United States men's under-20 international soccer players United States men's under-23 international soccer players Association football defenders Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States Pan American Games medalists in football Footballers at the 1991 Pan American Games Medalists at the 1991 Pan American Games